Why We Worship

Switch to NiV Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power;

For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.” And…

Switch to NIV Nehemiah 9:6says, “You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.

Created on Purpose for a Purpose

That purpose is to worship Him

And We Were Created To Worship Him.

Can i tie in our mission or vision here

don’t do him vs what else? because that is the next point

We just referenced Revelation 4:11 where we acknowledge that The Lord is worthy of our praise because He created us. The proper response to our creator then is for us to acknowledge that we were created to worship Him. In verse 23 of our text, we see that those being sought after by God to worship Him are the true worshippers. A true worshipper is one who acknowledges their creator, and recognize the purpose for their existence, namely to bring glory to our creator. I know it may seem a little repetitive but it’s important that we come to a proper understanding of our purpose.

Who is this that we were created to worship?

Our creator – The maker of all life, in him we live and move and have our being.

Our sustainer – Colossians 1 tells us that he is before all things and holds all things together.

Our savior – Acts 4 teaches that there is salvation in no other, for there is not another name under heaven having been given among men, by which we are able to be saved."

Transition: The result of all this understanding then is that…

Spirit and Truth #3 Why? 1 Chronicles 16:23-31Switch all text to NIV if no Semantic Issues We looked at Who we worship, and where and when we worship. Today we’re exploring why we worship. Worship connects us with God, it changes our atmosphere and worship changes us. God doesn’t need anything, but He always wants our worship.

When we talk about the why of an aspect of our faith we could refer to it as an apologetic. A defense of the idea if you will… It perhaps has been a long time since you have ever asked the question, Why do we worship, it may be second nature to you at this point, and I hope that it is. But what if someone asked you the question, “Why do you worship? Why do you stand up in a room full of people and sing, clap, raise your hands, cry, shout? We have been instructed to always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us. We’re going to jump into our text today where we will see no less than 5 great reasons to answer the question. Why do we worship? (1 Chronicles 16:23-31) Text: 23 Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim good news of His salvation from day to day. 24 Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. 25 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. 27 Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place. 28 Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the Lord in holy attire. 30 Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. 31 Let the heavens be joyful, and the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” (PRAY) Each one of our points today is going to show how our worship should be an expression of our experience. And not just should be, but it is. A lack of expression in our worship could reflect the lack of experience that we should be having in our relationship with Jesus… Each point will lend itself to… We worship Because of (and to proclaim) THE GOOD NEWS OF HIS SALVATION… (v.23) For those of us who have given our lives to Christ, we probably understand what it means that He is our salvation. But when we talk about salvation we talk about our salvation in Jesus. The text that we are looking at today is found in 1st Chronicles which was written hundreds of years before Jesus came to the earth. The reason I emphasize this is that too often I feel that we minimize the word, the idea, the experience of the salvation of God. Salvation represents His saving power.

Let’s consider 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, Paul writes, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” Many scholars agree that this passage is better understood in this way “this gospel is the gospel by which you are being saved.” I tend to agree with those scholars as we that in verse 2 it says we are saved IF we hold fast to these words. My salvation is not just a momentary prayer, a baptism experience, or just a ticket into heaven or out of hell. God IS saving us. In the Nazarene Church and in Wesleyan theology we refer to this as prevenient grace, or the grace that goes before us. How many of us could testify today to the fact that his salvation is saving us, has intervened, has preserved, and is preparing to ultimately save us at the end of life. We worship not just because of but also, to proclaim the continual saving power of his salvation. Transition: Reason #2 we worship because of and to proclaim…

HIS GLORY AND GOODNESS… (v.24-25) 24 “Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. 25 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods.”

            We worship because of and to proclaim His glory and His goodness. The idea of worshipping creation is often labeled or associated in the category of “New age thinking,” but it’s really not new at all. All throughout time we have seen pantheistic views of God and His creation. The Apostle Paul warns of this in Romans 1 verses 24 and 25 where he expresses that those who reject the Creator will receive the judgement of God. He says, “God gives them over to wickedness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchange the truth of God for the lie, and catch this… THEY WORSHIPPED AND SERVED THE CREATURE INSTEAD OF THE CREATOR.”

            We do not worship the creation. We can worship in creation, but we do not worship THE creation. We don’t worship the creation, we see the Creator in His creation and worship Him and Him alone. We experience through His creation how magnificent God’s handiwork is. The more that we praise God for His goodness and glory, the greater perspective we will have of Him, and our realization that His creation declares His goodness and glory will shape how we live and worship… So we worship because of His salvation, we worship because of His Glory and His goodness, and we worship Him because He is the one and only true God.

Transition: We worship because and to proclaim that… We Worship Because… THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD. (v.25) “He is to be feared above all gods.” In John 14:6 Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the father except through me. The belief in only one is God is referred to as monotheism, and I believe that monotheism is one of the things that makes Christianity so wonderful. In some religions I pray to different deities, I worship different deities, I might even have to pray to a specific saint. One of the greatest blessings that we have in this life is the reality that Jesus is the only way. Some would argue that all of the gods that are out there are just different manifestations of a deity that we all ultimately worship. Let’s just oversimplify this, husbands why don’t you just start calling your wife by multiple different names. She knows your talking to her. It won’t bother her if you call her by an ex-girlfriend’s name, by your ex-wife’s name or the woman you work with, or the lady that lives down the street, she’ll be fine with that right? Of course not. Why? Because that is not who she is!

So why the other gods?…Because we don’t like Jesus’ way. We know it’s right but over the centuries we have molded our gods, oh and by the way in the evangelical church we would never say we worship another god, but often even the way we think religion should take place actually becomes the god that we worship. It has been said that there are two foundational facts in this life. 1. There is a god. 2. You are not him. Every other religion, every exercise of pride, every forced form of religious tradition has stemmed from us trying to play God. So when we worship it does well for our spiritual health to proclaim there is only one God, and because of this we worship Him. Transition: We worship because of His salvation, because of His glory and Goodness, because He is the One true God, we also worship because we have… 
 ACCESS TO HIS STRENGTH AND HIS JOY. (v.27) “Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place.” Too often we make our worship towards Him circumstantial. You could worship 3 weeks ago, but not today. God hasn’t changed, but maybe your circumstances have. The true believer understands that we always have access to His strength and His joy. To not take advantage of this supernatural reality falls on us, not on God, and not on others. As believers, as followers of Jesus Christ, we have no excuse to live weak, feeble and sad lives. Over and over again in scripture and beyond that in our own experiences we see that we are victorious because of God, because of Jesus Christ and because of the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. Transition: God is not running out of strength and joy We have access to them both, and this is another reason why we worship Him. We worship because of His salvation, we worship because of His goodness and glory, we worship because He is the One true God, we worship because of He gives us Joy and Strength whenever we need it, and finally we worship because He reigns. We proclaim all these things, we believe all these things, we worship because of all of these things because GOD REIGNS. (v.31) Let the heavens be joyful, and the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, “THE LORD REIGNS.” God is not planning his retirement… He reigns forever and ever. God is not working on a transition of power… He reigns forever and ever. God is not on a much-needed vacation to some place warmer… He reigns forever and ever. He didn’t take over for someone or something, Before the beginning time, He was, He is, and He is I AM. He reigns. It’s not Biden, Trump, Obama, Putin, LeBron, or the Kardashians. He reigns. It’s not China, North Korea,  Russia or the United States of America. God reigns. It’s not the Pope, The Bishop, The Pastor or Your Boss. God reigns.

Malachi 3:6 says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” He reigns, He is in complete control, He always has been and He always will be.”

You may have a serious heart problem but that heart problem doesn’t have you. God does. You may have cancer, but cancer doesn’t have you, God does. You may struggle with depression, anxiety, anger, or pride, but God still reigns, and He is more powerful than all of that and is in complete control. The Lord reigns… Job said this in Job 13:15, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” In Isaiah 45:22…  He said, “Look to me and be saved all the ends of the Earth for I AM GOD…And there is no other.. The Lord reigns… God reigns. All of these passages have made it clear that God reigns. God is in control, and this gives us reason to worship Him, but it also begs us to examine our own life and ask the question, “DOES GOD REIGN IN MY LIFE?” Or do I reign… Is He in control or are my finances in control? Is He in control or is someone or something else controlling my life? True worship stems from a life where God is in full control. Not because we could ever limit His power, but because we try to keep control.

When we worship it makes us more Christ like. It fulfills His purpose for our life, and God promises to meet us when we worship Him. Do you love Him today? Let Him know it. Do you have reason to worship and praise Him today? Let Him know it.